[Reprinted from Pravda.ru] It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the “winning” side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a “bold” move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…but a “freeman” whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set “fair” maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

Thirty years from now, the poor Russian government, as well as governments around the world will be on their knees, begging the American government for food. You see, we Americans have more fertile farm land yielding more food than any other country in the world.

It’s no joke that millions of the world’s population will starve to death in the coming decades, due to lack of food.

The guy may or may not be dilusional about the business about Wall Street pushing Russia into communism, but I have seen articles about similar things. Whether it is true, who knows? Perhaps with the vast natural resources and unified control under a Czar, the Wall Street gang and British compatriots, saw Russia as a future competitor – what better way to hobble a competitor than to put them under a yolk of a foolish and sure to fail economic and cultural system? (Socialism and communism fail to take into account what HUMAN NATURE are all about, and cannot and never will succeed in the long run).

What is it with some ultra-rich, in their fascination for communism, socialism and fascism, anyway? Perhaps it is a mental illness, or guilt or something.

The rest of the article is startlingly apparent as being true if one opens ones eyes and looks around.

Wow…this Stanislav might have some points, but his homophobia is really sickening and is enough to disqualify everything else he says.

But yeah, Eastern Europe must be an Evangelical paradise…everybody respects the orthodox church, it has become capitalistic like the 19th century west, and you can still beat up homo sexuals and it’s the gays who go to jail for it (or the police just beats them up themselves).

MikeyDee, your assessment about growing food only works as long as oil is flowing into the United States. We import fully 70% of our oil, and cannot raise sufficient amounts food for ourselves, never mind exports, without it.

In the meanwhile, in other news, The One Administration is busy making Christians out to be enemies of the state. And plans on essentially kidnapping a whole generation of youth for his new Brownshirt brigade.

God obviously has an interesting sense of humor in that the ONLY group of americans (not Americans*) who can and do currently grow food without benefit of oil – are Christian Amish, who will leave the country and their farms before submitting their innocent youth to being conscripted for any purpose whatsoever.

Which of the four horseman is famine, again?

*Amish and Mennonites do not subscribe to the idea that they are citizens of a nation; they see themselves as citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and happen to live in worldly jurisdictions. They are also known as the peace churches and will not tolerate having their folk conscripted, never have, never will.

My sense of diversity ends where my sense of morality begins. Being gay is as much a life choice as being black or blond or tall. So while it’s not a virtue, it certainly shouldn’t be looked down upon as Stanislav implies.

I’m also anti-diverse on many other aspects, like stoning unmarried women for having sex, even though there are cultures and religions who endorse it. Call me arrogant, but I’m convinced that my morality is superior to that.

Now I’m not American and I don’t know Barney Franks and if he’s a Marxist (which I somehow doubt,) then he should be challenged on that, not on being a “social pervert”. That’s just disgraceful and adds nothing to the points made, as a matter of fact it does the opposite, because now I don’t know if Franks was picked out because of his positions on capitalism, or because of his sexuality, which has nothing to do with the questions at hand.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

The rest of the article is plain funny, but this point rings true: the US, if not the west as a whole, is going to end up in chains without realizing it because said chains are “for your own protection”.

Who jangles the other end of the chain is what’s up for debate. Pity that people are spending all their energy deciding who would be a worse slavemaster than actually doing something about it.

Pravda is always good for a chuckle, so I keep it bookmarked (right after Drudge).

The day after the November election, Pravda had a wonderful essay explaining how Obama was merely a placeholder installed by the “powers that rule America” to take all the blame for the economy and prepare the country for the return of the true leader, George Bush, in 2012.

Often these articles show more how they view the world through the filter of their own reality (Medvedev, Putin vs. Obama, Bush) than any insightful view of reality.

I am confounded as to why anyone holds any interests or concerns in another’s sex habits??? We all seem to agree that people are all individuals with different preferences concerning all things, except when it comes to sex, then of course all people are supposed have identical sexual preferences. I personally suspect those most uncomfortable with gays, are in fact stuffing and denying their own gay facets of their sexualities.

When Putin imprisoned an oil baron (whose name escapes me now)in a power struggle, I remember telling a Russian friend who worked seasonally at my job, that at least in Russia the government wields power. This in contrast to the USA where plutocrats hold the real power, and the government to a large degree is their lapdog. I stand by that statement to this day.

I was first acquainted with the fact that “Pravda” translates as “Truth” in Communist Russia my social studies class in the 1960’s. Ever since Fox News came along with their endlessly repeated “Fair and Balanced” slogan, the bald faced irony of that slogan has always reminded me of “Pravda”.

I remember being taught a lesson in public school in the 60’s that was given to discredit Communism, that Marx’s writings outlined the idea that unfettered capitalism would by nature lead to its own demise and set up the conditions that give rise to communism. It was a laughable idea then. Not so laughable at all 40+ years later, startlingly and uncomfortably prophetic in fact this past year.

One other note. My Russian friend held Ladas in total contempt. The production of them was at the time, being governmentally sponsored, pretty much for national pride and because Lada was too big to fail. He said any ordinary Russian held the Lada (GM, anyone?) in utter contempt. Foreign cars were respected and desired. Incedentally, he bought a used Toyota Celica here and shipped it to Russia when he ended his employment, and sold it there for a profit a few years later.

GM could not get any money from me by making competent products I would want to buy, so now they get my money in the form of tax dollars. Seems for those at the top, it is all win-win. For the rest of us it is lose-lose.

I’m an American, but I don’t live, won’t live… in “America” any more. I’m somewhere here “outside the wire”.

For those of you hunkered down back inside the compound: For the most part, the local people I know here don’t even give a rat’s ass anymore about what happens in the USA. They used to. They’ve just gotten tired of the whole sorry show. When they see the news about Chrysler & GM & the banks & the mortgages & on & on & on, they all shake their heads like it’s a cryin’ shame. But they accept it. They don’t have the emotional attachment and its attendant denial. They accept that it represents a historic failure of the American way. They see that it’s still playing out, but they know what it means.

ttacgreg: “I was first acquainted with the fact that “Pravda” translates as “Truth” in Communist Russia my social studies class in the 1960’s. Ever since Fox News came along with their endlessly repeated “Fair and Balanced” slogan, the bald faced irony of that slogan has always reminded me of “Pravda”.

I remember being taught a lesson in public school in the 60’s that was given to discredit Communism, that Marx’s writings outlined the idea that unfettered capitalism would by nature lead to its own demise and set up the conditions that give rise to communism. It was a laughable idea then. Not so laughable at all 40+ years later, startlingly and uncomfortably prophetic in fact this past year.”

I can recall those lessons as well. I’ve actually had all those deja vu moments for the past 8 years to be honest and I’ve come to the conclusion that we have become the Soviet Union:

Party-Controlled media? (check)
Sprawling Bureaucracy with the word ‘Homeland’ in it? (check)
Secret and not-so-secret Gulags in remote places? (check)
Rights Restricting Rules with Orwellian Nomenclature? (check)
Imposing our political system on small countries through military action? (check)
Travel & ID restrictions for citizens? (check)
Acceptance of a Pervasive Surveillance Culture (check)
Justifications for the use of torture? (check)
Mired in an endless occupation of a hostile Islamic nation? (check, check)
and now… Government control of heavy industry? (check)

and of course the most telling stamp of creeping Communism:
Sending juice-up professional athletes to the Olympics? (check)

Obviously, Mr. Mishin is of the mistaken impression that something new and alarming is happening in the United States. But we’re not printing money at a record pace. Do people really not understand the difference between printing money and debt? This isn’t the first time the government has gotten involved in or brokered the fate of a business. The tax system is always in need of overhaul and such efforts always attract untoward manipulation.

Barack Obama didn’t fire Rick Wagoner. His administration instead said it would not further support his leadership with tax dollars. It’s difficult for people in other countries to grasp how truly dynamic both American society and its government are. They think that trends are a one-way street; that pragmatic and selective application of “socialist” tactics for mitigating temporary problems will not only persist but become institutionalized. Just as people thought that deregulation in the US during the Reagan administration would devolve into a permanent jungle mentality in the economy. At any given time, either liberalism is inevitably dead or capitalism is.

We had unprecedented interventions in the economy during FDR’s administration and learned since that in many ways Roosevelt didn’t go far enough in mitigating that crisis. Eventually, the electorate conceded that liberalism’s socialist leanings had gone too far and cowboy capitalism returned. It’s being dialed back now, and a new, temporary intervention is mitigating a crisis. The rest of the world, tending to rigidity, is baffled by America’s pragmatic dynamism. Neither Obama nor his lieutenants want to be in the car-making business in any direct way, so in time they won’t be. Meanwhile, our government will hold shares in GM and Chrysler as a means of anchoring value if things turn out well, so we participate in a favorable outcome if there is one. It’s simple as that, but it’s generally too much to expect people rooted in less pragmatic cultures to grasp. Pravda thought Nixon’s wage & price controls debacle was the beginning of the end for us, too.

Most Americans are focussed on pursuing their own view of success, regardless of setbacks, to make the machinations of Washington their first priority. We give our country intense consideration; but we give our government much less.

tom please spare us the self-righteous BS about Russian homophobia and Barney Frank. You’re talking out of you a– on this; Barney Frank is a disgusting perverted ‘dirty-old man’ and a homosexual; also known as a TROLL in the LGBT community he was caught red ‘handed’ using young male prostitutes while a congressman (an illegal act and violation of congressional ethics rules). What would you call a 69 yr old heterosexual politician that solicits sex from 20 year old girls for 1 night stand? I’d call that guy a dirty old man. Barney Frank is a detestable lying pervert and hypocrite; that’s all the Russian author was referring to. And please stop being some brainwashed politically correct lemming when it comes to Gay issues. If Mr. Frank had not been Gay he would been expelled from congress (for using prostitutes). Also, keep in mind that the majority of pedophiles are homosexual pedophiles (something the mainstream media covers-up) (Roman Catholic priest preyed on boys 8 out of 10 cases). Gays should not be persecuted or beaten, but neither should they be immune to criticism and scrutiny.

The rest of the world, tending to rigidity, is baffled by America’s pragmatic dynamism.

That would be the other way around. Most of the other successful nations are all on a similar social contract, and it’s really America which has been on a backwards conservative adventure ever since the backlash from racial integration, et al. A few decades out of the loop, but better late than never.

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Most Americans are focussed on pursuing their own view of success, regardless of setbacks, to make the machinations of Washington their first priority.

Success is more or less resultant from the social system, so I would hope they care about what kind of governance they have.

The US is now running out of other peoples money. This is going to be a big moment in history when the USA flounders on the rocks like GM.

+1. Ain’t that the truth. Look at Obama and his boy Geithner. On one hand they’re printing money like there’s no tomorrow while on the other hand Hillary and Geithner go to China prostrating and making themselves China’s bitches to prevent the Chinese from dumping US Treasury bonds. The Chinese have even been laughing in Geithner’s face and he has to sit there and take it.

In short order, there will be no US foreign policy; our foreign policy will be whatever China wants it to be, under threat of destabilizing the dollar.

It’s kind of funny how every time something absurdly reactionary and anti-government is posted on TTAC, folks come charging in to declare the End of America, as though the concept of America is a static, non-evolving paradigm that only fits the very constricted interpretations of one individual. I could list 10 reasons why America is Marxist! and then 10 reasons why America is Fascist! and 10 reasons why gophers are plotting to take over the world and they would all carry the same weight.

I’ve got a shocker. America is a great big country and amazingly resilient and we’ll see our way through this and all other challenges and still emerge a country founded on personal liberty and opportunity for all. It’s not the end of the world, nobody’s plotting to take all your land and money and destroy the country from the inside and as long as we all stay vigilant and involved in the democratic process, the country will flourish.

But to fit in better, I guess I better add that OBAMA WANTS TO KILL USA and also liberals hate freedom!

The state, local, and federal governments will be as bankrupt as GM and Chrysler within two years. Fine with me. If GM and Chryco have broken legs, gov subdivisions have the black plague. They crashed the Gross Domestic Product with liar loans, interest-only mortgages, and recklessly loose credit, and are in the final stages of crashing the dollar. Do I hate the government ? Yes. Do I hate my country ? NO. The federal gov has been on a spending bender for 80 years, and now must go to rehab. Congress is the problem, not the President. He can be a huge inspiration, or a huge weight. I think he is the former. At least, I hope he will be. Compared to the size of the financial problems we have, his actual power is pretty small indeed.
P.S.- good post, Goolsbee

Success is more or less resultant from the social system, so I would hope they care about what kind of governance they have.

To most Americans, most politicians are bums. So they care very much “what kind of governance they have” (representative democracy with bureaucratic elements) but pay much less attention to the *quality* of governance except on occasions when “da bums” disappoint even the public’s willfully low expectations. The USA is not a country born of intrinsic elevated respect for political leaders, so why expect us to behave otherwise?

I would agree with your point, but my assert which wasn’t stated clearly was rather that “success” in any system is dependent on its configuration. For example, we may have a system where financial regulation is very lax, and taking proper advantage of that would produce much wealth, versus one that had tight regulation (say monopoly by bureaucracy), and careers there may be not lucrative at all.

Once you add the observation that people end up in careers statistically due to factors outside their immediate control, you can see that the configuration of the rules is quite important to culturally defined success.

Coincidentally, this touches on the general tendency of conservatism to contend that all results in life are due to individual choices, when really on a broader level it tends to be much more systematic.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/current/h3.htm
Among other sources. Look it up.

P.S.- Obama has “assumed” many new powers in the area of dictating policy to the bailed-out corps, and that was indeed shocking, especially to the former Soviet bloc.
They see him as a blunt instrument, a Putin hardliner.
But if they FAIL, or the dollar crashes before we are out of this mess, this GAMBLE will backfire and the “socialists” will be booted out unceremoniously.

Inflation IS the expansion of the money supply. The only deflation we will see is the bursting of the bubbles- in (artificially inflated and unsustainable) housing prices, the 14,000 DJIA, and any other bubbles created by the insertion of political and other unnatural forces into the workings of the free market of supply and demand. The velocity of the recent monetary expansion can only result in rapid inflation, and the crash of the dollar. Too many dollars chasing too few goods=inflation. Or you could say that inflation is the dilution of the currency. Same difference.

Except we aren’t. Yet. Don’t intend to. From the point at which government intervened aggressively when Lehman Bros. imploded through Q1, the money supply was only expanded about 10%. And the administration has taken the position it intends to vacuum up some of that during recovery. There certainly hasn’t been printing of money at rate and volume inducing of hyperinflation, as suggested elsewhere here.

If one wants to take the view that we shouldn’t print *any* money so therefore any printing of money is bad, well have at it.

Sir, with all do respect, you’re proclaiming your belief as if it’s an axiom.
There’s an equally valid point of view that FDR went TOO FAR and actually prolonged that crisis.

Ah, yes, there’s that postulate. But there isn’t enough time in my day to compensate for all the world’s misinformation.

The velocity of the recent monetary expansion can only result in rapid inflation, and the crash of the dollar. Too many dollars chasing too few goods=inflation.

Printing isn’t the only way the money supply expands within a domestic economy. And today, there’s no indication that too many dollars are chasing too few goods. Quite the opposite with few exceptions. Even (especially) oil has trouble finding a floor.Currency can be taken out of circulation directly and indirectly, just as it is injected. It’s not a unidirectional tool.

“The money supply was only expanded about 10% in Q1″…
Look at the amount borrowed from the Fed for April 2008…135410 (Millions)
and the amount borrowed for May 20,2009…554779 (Millions) That’s about TRIPLE, not up 10% (I know, for a longer period of time, but the biggest increase is from Sept 08 to May 09)

Maybe these Fed numbers aren’t the truest gauge of the total money supply. If not, show me yours.
I am not an economist, but I can read and Google.
And oil is up to $68.00, up from a low of $33.00 or so.
You can look up these numbers too. Enquiring minds want to know.

To be fair, increasing reserve can have a multiplicative effect. On the other hand, the “fractional reserve” doesn’t even apply to a lot of a bank’s loaning, so there goes the cause-effect for “printing money” people.

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Maybe these Fed numbers aren’t the truest gauge of the total money supply. If not, show me yours.
You can look up these numbers too. Enquiring minds want to know.

He’s probably referring to M2/M3, which I’m too lazy to click up, so you can do it and edumacate everyone else.

Agenthex- perhaps you meant that inflation is the RESULT of the expansion of the money supply. If so, I stand corrected.
I’d suggest you do some reading at
http://mises.org/ to learn some austrian economic theory. More articles at http://mises.org/articles.aspx
Good literature at http://mises.org/literature.aspx

Hayekian or Keynesian economic theories are merely fantastic justifications for political manipulation of the economy, IMHO

Maybe these Fed numbers aren’t the truest gauge of the total money supply. If not, show me yours. You can look up these numbers too. Enquiring minds want to know.

True money supply in the US has increased only 14.27% from March 2008 – March 2009. That’s pretty much in line with my prior recollection that money supply expanded roughly 10% from Lehman’s destruction through March 09.

http://www.economicsjunkie.com/money-supply-growth-march-2009/

This is not even remotely hyperinflationary. The expansion of the *monetary base* is not the same thing. Your own prior link explains it:

“…The seasonally adjusted, break-adjusted monetary base consists of (1) seasonally adjusted, break-adjusted total reserves plus (2) the seasonally adjusted currency component of the money stock plus (3), for all quarterly reporters on the “Report of Transaction Accounts, Other Deposits and Vault Cash” and for all those weekly reporters whose vault cash exceeds their required reserves, the seasonally adjusted, break-adjusted difference between current vault cash and the amount applied to satisfy current reserve requirements…”

Recall too that the Fed has upped banks’ reserve requirements, having found them too lean against liabilities. Further, as the monetary base has expanded, other capital is being destroyed, arguably at a faster rate for now. Plus, money added to the system that ends up stuffed in a mattress, or otherwise saved is not inflationary. There’s a *lot* of cash on the sidelines these days.

If you are referring strictly to the amount of CURRENCY in circulation, you are correct. Also correct about currency stuffed in mattresses and on the sidelines. It is true that we do not yet have hyperinflation, but mark my words, there is no way to avoid it now. I am not talking about rising prices, although that will happen too. I am talking about the crash of the dollar and the worldwide economy. I can’t give you an exact date, except to say that no one will be ready for it when it happens. Weimar or Zimbabwe. And how I hope that I am wrong. Show me.

The Dollar is the world’s reserve currency and we have by far the largest single-nation economy. The EU adds countries and claims it’s bigger, but we know otherwise; and anyway their 500mm people only roughly match the output of our 305mm. In Q1 of this year, EU GDP shrank at twice the rate the US’ did, and overall the shrinkage of the EU economy has been more rapid than that of the US during this downturn. Who has the alternative? Only weeks ago, the Pound and the Euro were yielding to strong dollar gains, so really, look past the present and pay no attention to the gyrations of an emotional market. The market has no idea how to process the present.

The US is good for its debts and deep down, the whole world knows it. We also will be growing again by Q1, maybe Q4. When the markets realize that the world economy remains roped to American resiliency, innovation, stability and growth, and that with a growing population we can grow our way out of our problems, demand for the Dollar will steady. Further, Obama’s team can put one less Treasury note on the market than it wants. The world’s interest in equilibrium remains acute and distributed.

All this hand-wringing…. Keep an even strain. We spent 60 years sponsoring and fostering creation of a more economically equitable world. We conciously used our vast economy as an engine to hasten multi-polar wealth. There will be adjustments but catastrophe of the economic kind isn’t our fate.

I’d suggest you do some reading at
http://mises.org/ to learn some austrian economic theory

Why would anyone want to study hypotheses that have no predictive power and do not work in industrialized growth econs? Do you do point people to the flat earth hypothesis, too?

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In Q1 of this year, EU GDP shrank at twice the rate the US’ did, and overall the shrinkage of the EU economy has been more rapid than that of the US during this downturn.

Funny enough this is in part because the EU simply doesn’t have the centralized discipline to “print money” when the need arises like to bail out screwed members.

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When the markets realize that the world economy remains roped to American resiliency, innovation, stability and growth, and that with a growing population we can grow our way out of our problems, demand for the Dollar will steady.

American hegemony wins again. (with dollar backstop)
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We conciously used our vast economy as an engine to hasten multi-polar wealth.

Right, like when we gave that great advice to the former USSR. We sure f’d them over good.

Right, like when we gave that great advice to the former USSR. We sure f’d them over good.

During most of that time the US using it’s economy to power up multi-polar wealth, the USSR was the enemy and among the reasons we sought to shore up partners who could share the load. I was involved with a Russian-American JV in 1990 – 92 at a time when even the simplest principles of capitalism had to be explained in elementary terms to our business partners. The late USSR wasn’t ready to assimilate much of the advice available to it.

The post-Soviet Russians didn’t get bad advice from us; but it was incomplete, both in what was given and what was heard. The Bush I internationalists and the New Economy Clintonites forgot our own history from American capitalism’s adolescence, and were naively shocked to see Russian eonomic vandalism in the first flush of freedom. It, you know, had been awhile.

Right, like when we gave that great advice to the former USSR. We sure f’d them over good.

During most of that time the US using it’s economy to power up multi-polar wealth, the USSR was the enemy and among the reasons we sought to shore up partners who could share the load. I was involved with a Russian-American JV in 1990 – 92 at a time when even the simplest principles of capitalism had to be explained in elementary terms to our business partners. The late USSR wasn’t ready to assimilate much of the advice available to it.

The post-Soviet Russians didn’t get bad advice from us; but it was incomplete, both in what was given and what was heard. The Bush I internationalists and the New Economy Clintonites forgot our own history from American capitalism’s adolescence, and were naively shocked to see Russian eonomic vandalism in the first flush of freedom. It, you know, had been awhile.

The Bush I internationalists and the New Economy Clintonites forgot our own history from American capitalism’s adolescence, and were naively shocked to see Russian eonomic vandalism in the first flush of freedom.

That’s really the point. They got advice for “capitalism” on a broad scale, and ended up with the worst kind of crony capitalism.